When it comes to getting anything done in Washington, politicians have admitted that they are forced into action by the people. Without our loud voices pushing them, they won’t do much. These days, Republicans are hearing a lot from conspiracy theorists, white Christian nationalists, and white supremacists while the rest of us look on in absolute horror and wonder why they are making such horrific choices. They are being driven by a very loud voting minority. It’s time for the rest of America to become even louder to push them in another direction. While protesting and voting are important, we have another tool in our toolbox that too few people realize or fail to utilize.
The First Amendment grants us the right to petition our government. What this means is that we have the right to use our individual and collective voice to express our grievances or desires directly to our elected government officials without threat of reprisal. This is a right that I have used frequently by either taking the time to read and sign petitions created by others or by sitting down and either emailing or writing a letter. Some people prefer to pick up a phone to call their representatives. I’ve done that, too, although I prefer to email or send letters. A few people, make an appointment for a face-to-face meeting. This week, I sent two such letters. I sent one to the new Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy along with a copy of it to the new House Minority Leader, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries. I sent a second letter to the new Chair of the Oversight Committee, James Comer of Kentucky, after being disturbed by his interview on the PBS News Hour.
Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the new Speaker. My hope is that readers will become inspired to do the same. The more emails, letters, and phone calls, the better. His Washington DC address is 2468 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515.
Dear Speaker McCarthy,
As a tax-paying, law-abiding, voting citizen of this country, I am writing to express my disappointment in the Republican agenda and the looming (and unnecessary) fight over the deficit. The Republicans look like revenge-seeking hypocrites who will do absolutely nothing to address the actual problems that face the nation.
You whine about deficits now that Biden is in the White House but gave Trump an easy pass. In fact, you cut revenue (taxes) for the wealthy and corporations. Of course, we have a deficit! When an American family can’t pay their bills, they not only cut spending, but they find another revenue source like working overtime or getting a part-time job. You want to cut spending on essential things that will hurt average Americans, especially the poor, when you really should be collecting more taxes from the wealthy and from those (like Donald Trump) who cheat on their taxes. Warren Buffet and others publicly admitted that he didn’t need those tax cuts. We have people with more wealth than they can possibly spend and yet their wealth is only growing while others work long hours and can’t afford necessities. Perhaps you should start a Go Fund Me page for the wealthy to “donate” to the government since you refuse to tax them.
I find your rhetoric and your agenda to be bogus on just about every front. First, you refuse to hold Trump accountable for breaking laws, lying, and causing an insurrection. Second, you have given committee appointments to Santos who became a congressman through lies and deceit and is very likely a criminal. At the same time, you gave committee assignments to conspiracy theorists who lack common sense and common decency. Your party punishes upstanding representatives who tried to hold Trump and the January 6th insurrectionists accountable for their attack on our democracy. And anyone with eyes understands that Dr. Fauci was a public servant who worked to save lives during a pandemic. And for God’s sake, Hunter Biden is not the president and doesn’t hold any kind of public office, so why are you wasting my taxpayer dollars investigating a private citizen? Instead, you should stop ignoring the business and financial connections Trump, his daughter and son in law had with foreign countries during their tenure in the White House. This is hypocrisy at its worse.
None of your attacks on women’s health, LGBTQ civil rights, the poorest among us, health care, and social security are going unnoticed by average Americans who care about the lives of others. You can’t dress up your harmful agenda as fiscal responsibility when you continuously cut taxes on people who don’t need it and ignore doctors and scientists in favor of flimsy conspiracy theories, ignorance, and a rejection of historical facts.
And as an aside, I tried to call the IRS to get a tax question answered and had to wait for hours to get an answer because they are understaffed. On another occasion, I had to give up altogether and never received a call back. We desperately need more agents to answer questions and to collect taxes from cheaters like Trump. So, I fully reject your suggestion to defund the IRS. And a national sales tax is an unfair tax on the poorest among us. If anything, you should be raising the income tax rates and social security tax on the wealthiest Americans or ask them to donate to the U.S. Treasury.
I’m disgusted by your party’s unwillingness to spend money on the things this country needs like infrastructure, healthcare, a safety net for the poor, clean-air and water, fighting threats like climate change, and an immigration system that works.
We have real problems in this country, and I am livid that your party plans to spend its time on revengeful investigations and fights over spending cuts instead of addressing the real problems I mentioned.
I am expecting you to raise more revenue to cover necessary spending. I am expecting you to hold Trump and members in your party accountable for their attacks on our democracy. I am expecting you to listen to healthcare providers, scientists, and other experts to try to solve real problems. I am expecting you to pass comprehensive immigration laws that deal with the issues at our border and to process people who are here in a timelier fashion. I am expecting you to protect the reproductive rights of women. I am expecting you to pass legislation that curbs the rampant gun violence, gun suicides, and gun accidents that are happening every day. I am expecting you to deal with domestic terrorist who threaten educators, public health care workers, election officials, judges, and legislators. I am expecting you to address the drug crisis tearing through communities. You cannot do this by defunding the FBI and investigating the justice department.
All of this comes under what our government was established to do: provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. We need revenue to accomplish these things and until now, we have collected taxes. So, stop cutting taxes unless you plan to run the government on donations from the wealthy.
Sincerely,
Dr. Juanita Hall
Cc: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
My hope in sharing this is that my readers will seriously consider taking the time to make their opinions known to our lawmakers. They only act when we push them. And for those who think these letters fall on death ears, please know that that is not the case. I’ve had lawmakers respond directly to specific comments in my letters. One aide told me that each letter is important because they understand that it represents a lot of people who don’t take the time to write but who feel the same way.